Troubleshooting possible NIC issues
-
I agree with ktim…I dont think it's pfSense/FreeBSD...seems to be related to that 2nd NIC (RE1)...so it looks like hardware or cabling, or port speed if it's a managed switch. It looks like the software is fine because the other 2 NICs have no errors.
Good luck!
-
Hey guys, so I made a fresh new network cable (fully tested), I also changed the switch that sits behind RE1. So far no good, I'm still dropping packets… all my servers (RE2 - 192.168.99.0/24) lose connectivity to my LAN subnet (RE1 - 192.168.0.0/24) for around 5-10 seconds when this happens. I've noticed in the System log I've been getting "kernel: re1: watchdog timeout" messages every once in awhile. What exactly would cause this? Can it be fixed with some kind of configuration change, or am I stuck with a bad NIC?
Thanks!
- Adam
-
What version of pfSense are you using?
It may be worth trying 1.2.3 - see http://blog.pfsense.org/?p=377
-
wallabybob,
Thanks, I'll try that this weekend and see how it goes.
I just thought of something, I installed the embedded version because this box uses a MiniATX board, and I figured it used an embedded processor. Looking into the hardware more, pfSense is reporting it as a "VIA C7 Esther". Wikipedia shows that it's a desktop processor, do you think this hardware would be compatible with the normal version? Would using the embedded version be more susceptible to these types of issues?
Thanks,
- Adam -
Well first of all you're using the notoriously terrible Realtek NICs. You should really consider upgrading them to something decent, like an Intel. They're dirt cheap on eBay.
If you're stuck with the Realtek, this problem appears to be fairly common, but some have reported success by disabling ACPI, you could try that. 1.2.3 is definitely worth a try as well; this driver has been significantly revamped since 7.0. Also, I ran an re NIC on 1.2.3 temporarily in production (~75mbit peak) for a couple weeks while waiting on an em NIC from eBay and had no issues.
-
Thanks for the advice, ktims. I'm currently in the process of moving to new hardware, but have been facing some issues there as well (most likely on the ISP's end… I have a post about it in the NAT forum). My current box is a little Astaro box that I immediately put pfSense on. It has no pci/pci-e slots for more NICS =(
- Adam
-
realtek gave me so much trouble with all versions of pfsense that i bought a dual port intel card off ebay…..best thing i did regarding pfsense, it increased my speed and i haven't had any problems sense
-
Hey everyone, thanks very much for all the responses. I finally got everything moved over to a 1u unit w/ 2 onboard Intel NICs (fxp), and a Sun Quad NIC (hme). Everything seems to be working great after 24 hours with no dropped packets, woohoo!
-
glad to hear it…i moved to intel nics too though mine use the em driver
had nothing but good luck with them -
This problem may be resolved, but we need testers. The patch was for a Realtek 8139C+ chip specifically (which are also present on Firebox X series devices).
Please see http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,15669.0.html